


Friends With Fangs

by Crematosis



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood Drinking, Character Turned Into Vampire, M/M, Teenage Tony Stark, Vampire Bucky Barnes, Vampire Hunters, Vampire Natasha Romanov, Vampire Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:00:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24924277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crematosis/pseuds/Crematosis
Summary: Tony never expected to enjoy poetry. He never expected to fall in love with a poet either. But he's drawn to Steve in a way he can't explain. But there's a lot more to Steve than meets the eye and his suspiciously intense best friend is just the beginning.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 33
Kudos: 213
Collections: Iron Man Big Bang 2019/2020, alphabet's marvel favorites





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is my entry for the Iron Man Big Bang this year. 
> 
> Art in chapter 6 by [starksnack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starksnack/works)
> 
> Moodboards in chapter 1, 3, and 10 by [menatiera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/menatiera/works)

Tony hated college. It was nothing but busywork and jumping through hoops. He wasn’t learning a lot of new information and what they did manage to teach him wasn’t anything he was ever going to use for the rest of his life. When was he ever going to talk about the Battle of Waterloo outside of a lecture hall?

But his father had insisted that he get a college degree if he was to take over the company one day, so Tony had worked hard to get it over with as soon as possible. At eighteen, he was just one semester away from finally graduating with his bachelor’s degree in computer science.

All he had left was the pesky language arts requirement. And because he had put it off so long, he was stuck in Alexander Pierce’s introduction to poetry class.

Pierce was a pretentious asshole. On the first day of class, he had begun with a reading of one of his own poems. And even though the rest of the faculty wore sweater vests and polo shirts, Pierce showed up in a three piece grey suit and expensive wire-framed reading glasses like he was some hoity-toity Oxford professor or something.

At least his class didn’t seem to be that hard - despite his requirement that everyone actually write a couple poems instead of just letting them analyze somebody else’s.

The first poem was assigned right away, and had to be turned in at the start of their second class. But since Pierce had spent most of the first class talking about how poems could be about anything they wanted and take just about any shape and form (using some of his own poems for examples, of course. Could he be any more conceited?), Tony decided to just write down a bunch of science and engineering terms and organize them into lines.

If poems could be anything, then this counted as a poem. He dared Pierce to argue against it.

On the second day, Pierce was once again wearing a nice suit. No surprise there.

He sat on the edge of his desk and adjusted his sleeves to show off his expensive watch. “Good to see most of you back. I hope you all did your assignment because today I’m going to break you off into small groups to share your work.”

Most of the class, Tony included, immediately started grumbling.

Pierce held up a hand. “One of a poet’s best tools for improvement is feedback from his peers. You don’t want to be mediocre poets forever, right?”

Tony rolled his eyes. He didn’t give a damn if his poetry was mediocre. It didn’t have to be good, just good enough to pass the class.

Pierce divvied the class up into groups of three, going row by row. “And you three will be our fifth group,” he said, coming to a stop in front of Tony’s desk.

Tony glanced over his shoulder. There was a beefy, blue-eyed blonde sitting directly behind him. And behind the blonde was an equally athletic-looking guy with dark hair and frosted tips.

After all the groups had been chosen, Pierce set the class free to rearrange their desks into awkward semi-circles.

"Well, I think we should start by introducing ourselves. Steve Rogers,” the blonde said, extending a hand to Tony. He tilted his head to one side. “You know, you look pretty familiar. Were you in my art theory class last semester?”

“God, no,” Tony said. “I don’t do art.”

“Oh.” Steve looked very disappointed, but he cleared his throat and soldiered on. “Well, uh, I’m an art major, but I’m thinking of minoring in poetry. I’ve written a couple poems here and there. They’re not that great, but my best friend likes them.” Steve hunched his shoulders. “Never shared them with anyone besides Bucky, so this will be an interesting experience. But I’m looking forward to getting feedback from both of you and improving my poems. And I hope I can do the same for you as well.”

Tony heaved a sigh. Great. He just had to be grouped with the only guy in class who actually cared about poetry.

“Let’s go around clockwise. So, you’re next.” He looked at Tony expectantly.

Tony huffed. God, this was so stupid. “Tony Stark.”

Steve’s eyes went wide, something like horror and recognition quickly passing over his face.

Tony fought a smirk. Steve must have just realized why he looked so familiar. And it looked like he remembered him from an embarrassing situation. Some frat party maybe, a drunken one night stand, or perhaps he had happened to witness one of the times Tony’s friends had dared him to go streaking across campus or skinny dipping in the pool after hours.

He was definitely going to have to ask him after class. Watching prudish people squirm was one of his favorite pastimes.

“Engineering, business, and computer science major. I’m just in this stupid class because it’s required for my degree.”

Steve gave him a withering look and turned to the last member of their group. “And you are?”

“Pietro Maximoff.”

“Nice to meet you,” Steve said. “So, what are you-”

“Don’t bother,” Pietro said with a dismissive hand wave. “I’m dropping this class after today.” He crossed his arms over his chest and slouched down in his seat. “This professor is making us do his work for him. You realize that? We grade each other’s poems so he doesn’t have to.”

“That’s not what workshops are about,” Steve protested. “It’s an opportunity to-”

“Save your breath. I don’t have time for any more of this bullshit. I am a very busy man, you know. So many other classes I could focus on instead.”

Tony squinted at him. “So why are you waiting until after this class to drop? If you’re not sticking around, there’s no point in staying.”

Pietro opened his mouth and then closed it again. “You have a point,” he conceded. He rose from his seat and walked straight out the door.

Steve groaned.

“Looks like it’s just me and you,” Tony said cheerfully.

Steve made a face like he had just swallowed something sour. “Right. Well, I suppose we should get started.” He carefully pulled a sheet of paper out of his binder and slid it across the desk towards Tony. “Let’s swap poems and read through them on our own a few times before we have a discussion about our initial thoughts.”

“Nah,” Tony said. “I don’t read any poem more than once.” He snatched Steve’s paper off the desk and skimmed the first few lines.

Fragile human  
Strips of leather stitched with rainwater  
Spine of steel, bones of clay

Shit, this was actual poetry. Weird, incomprehensible imagery that meant god knows what.

“Good job,” Tony said. He slid the paper back across to Steve.

Steve frowned. “You didn’t even take enough time to read the whole thing.”

“I read enough. Good stuff there, Steve. You should be golden when it comes to grading.”

“You remember what Professor Pierce said. Good and bad are value judgments and we don’t put value judgements on poetry. We just talk about what’s successful and what’s not successful.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Fine. It’s very successful. I don’t know what else you want me to say about it. I’m sure you’re going to get an A, alright? So just chill out. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

Steve sighed. “You’re just as stubborn as your father.”

“How do you know that? When did you meet my dad?”

Steve blinked a few times. “Well, I mean, he has his own business, right? There’s got to be a lot of stubborness involved there. Or maybe I should say determination.”

“No, you were right the first time. Dad’s a stubborn asshole. It’s his fault I have to take this stupid class.”

“It’s pointless for you to be here if you’re not even going to give it an honest try. Do you want me to go first? Maybe you’ll be willing to give me an honest critique once I take your ego down a few pegs.”

Tony rolled his eyes and handed his paper over. “Do whatever you want.”

Steve studied the paper intently, his face darkening as he read. “This isn’t a poem, Tony.”

“Yes it is. Pierce said poetry can take any shape.”

“There’s no shape to this. You spent maybe thirty seconds on this, just throwing words at a paper. For such a supposedly smart guy, you’re being really stupid right now.”

“Fuck you, Rogers.”

Steve, Tony decided, was more of a pain in the ass than his father and Pierce put together.

And that was really saying something.

It was going to be a long class.


	2. Chapter 2

When Tony had a shitty day, the only thing that could make it better was venting to Rhodey. Because he was his best friend, listening to Tony’s rants was kind of his job description.

As usual, Rhodey was sitting in the cafeteria eating a turkey burger from Burgh, the school’s terrible knock-off version of Hardee’s, while he studied.

Tony grabbed his own burger and plopped into the seat across from his best friend.

“I’m over this semester already,” he declared, dramatically shoving Rhodey’s notes aside so he could drop his head down onto the table. “This is the single worst class I have had in my entire life.” 

Rhodey sighed and gathered his notes back into a neat pile. “It’s only the second day of classes. You can’t be burned out already.”

“Oh yes I can. And it’s all Mr. Smartypants Poetry Guy’s fault.” He launched into a detailed account of the great injustices he had suffered because of Steve.

As soon as Tony stopped to take a breath, Rhodey cut in. “Does Mr. Smartypants Poetry Guy have a name?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Steve. Steve Rogers.”

“Hmn. I don’t think I’ve had a class with him.”

“You’re lucky,” Tony huffed. “What does it matter anyway?”

Rhodey shrugged. “You’ve told me stories about people you don’t get along with before. And usually it’s because you said something to antagonize them first. You’’re not always a reliable narrator.”

Tony clutched a hand to his chest. “But, Platypus, I’m your best friend. How can you say something like that?”

“Because I’m your best friend and it’s my responsibility to tell you when you’re full of shit. And I’m pretty sure you’re full of shit right now. You’ve found the one thing you’re not good at and you’re just self-conscious about your work.”

“I don’t like poetry,” Tony huffed. “I don’t care if I’m not good at it.”

“Then what do you care what Smartypants Poetry Guy has to say about your poem?”

“Because he had to grade my poem and he gave it an F, Rhodey. An F! It was C grade work, maybe D at most. Obviously I had to give his an F too so he didn’t gain anything out of sabotaging my grade.”

Rhodey sighed heavily. “I think you’re blowing this way out of proportion, Tones.”

“He gave me a failing grade. How am I supposed to react to that?”

“And what percentage of your grade is this one assignment?”

Tony shrugged. “I don’t know. Pierce just kind of sprung it on us.”

“Well, I wouldn’t get too worried until you see what it’s really worth. I think you’ll be fine. If you’re really doing C work and he’s a good professor, he won’t let you fail because someone else has it in for you. But the same goes for Steve.”

Tony’s shoulders slumped. “So you think I’m going to fail the grading part instead of the poetry part. Thanks a lot, Rhodey. I feel so much better now.”

“Well, you never know. You just have to see what happens when you get your assignment back.” Rhodey glanced at his watch. “Listen, I’ve got to head to practice. Promise me you’re going to cool it and not get into any more fights with Steve.”

“I can’t guarantee that. If he starts going off about poetry shit again-”

“No,” Rhodey said firmly. “You need to put your head down and get through this class. Just stay away from him, ignore him, don’t get sucked into any drama and the semester will be over before you know it.”

Ignore him, huh? That was easier said than done.

Steve was a goddamn know it all. He had his hand up multiple times in class because he apparently knew the answer to every question Pierce asked. And no, Rhodey was wrong, Tony wasn’t upset that Steve knew more about poetry than he did. He didn’t care to learn about poetry. It was just hard to ignore Steve when Pierce was always calling on him and letting him go on and on about the merits of consonance and assonance.

Fuck Steve. He was an assonance. Whatever that meant.

Tony took small comfort in the fact that Steve’s attempt to show off for the professor hadn’t worked at all. Even though Steve’s giant F and angrily scrawled criticisms were still all over his paper when it was handed back, Pierce had still given it full credit.

Apparently, it was all just a practice exercise to “hone their craft” or some bullshit.

“Some of you were a little overzealous in your grading,” Pierce said. “We need to set aside our biases and personal feelings when we critique each other’s work and focus on the good of the poem.”

Tony couldn’t help but shoot a smug look in Steve’s direction, gratified to see him frowning down at his paper. Hopefully Pierce had written him a note about how unreasonable he was being.

“On your next assignment, I’ll actually be grading your poems, taking your partner’ critiques into account. Your criques are also going to be graded.”

Tony wasn’t looking forward to more poetry shit. But he was going to take Rhodey’s advice and just power through the class and never look at another poem again.

For this assignment, Pierce wanted them to take a line from a poem they read and make it the title of the poem they had to write for the week.

He explained it as a way of encouraging the class to read more poetry and to find inspiration everywhere. It just sounded like plagiarism to Tony, but whatever. At least it was an easy assignment.

Once class was over, Tony wandered into the library and grabbed a random poetry book off the shelf. He flipped through pages, just skimming the poems until words jumped out at him.

Amphetamine of accomplishment. That was kind of a cool phrase. And it even made sense. 

When Tony was making breakthroughs in his engineering, he could sometimes stay down in the lab for days without eating and sleeping, his excitement keeping him going. Rhodey had had to drag him out of the lab a couple times and yell at him for endangering his health.

His first impulse was to write exactly that. But his previous poem had also been about science and he didn’t want to be too predictable. Not that there was anything wrong with a series of science poems. 

Instead, he started with a girl who had a minor role in a school play. Everyone loved her performance and she basked in the praise. But she quickly became obsessed with getting bigger and better roles, dreaming of one day making it into Hollywood. And as she spiraled out of control, Tony let the poem become nonsense. 

The best thing about poetry was that there wasn’t formal structure. Essays had to have distinct paragraphs and proper sentences. But he could make the lines of his poem wildly different lengths and it was perfectly fine.

Tony wouldn’t admit it to anyone else, but it had actually been kind of fun to write.

The class was significantly smaller by the next meeting. At least twelve people had the good sense to get out while the going was good. There was an even number of survivors left so Pierce broke them off into pairs instead of groups. And because he just had to break them up alphabetically, Tony was once again stuck with Steve even though he had made sure to sit on the opposite side of the classroom.

Fuck his life.

“Stark,” Steve said, as he slid into the seat across from Tony. “Let’s get this over with.”

Tony sighed and shoved his paper at Steve. “Say whatever you want. I don’t care.”

Steve rolled his eyes and scooped up Tony’s paper. He read silently for a few moments, his eyebrows getting higher and higher as he read.

Tony fidgeted in his seat. How long did it really take to decide he hated the poem and wanted to be a dick again?

“Okay,” Steve said at last. “I just want to clear one thing up first. It’s spelled milquetoast, not milktoast.”

“Are you serious? That’s so stupid. It means boring, right? Why would you make the word for boring….not boring?”

“You got me there,” Steve said with a hint of a smile.

Tony sighed. “Alright, what else?”

“I like the structure of the poem.”

Tony squinted at him. “Wait, really?”

Steve nodded. “You have short, choppy lines and long, rambling sentences. It’s a good indicator of the speaker’s mental state. She’s clearly struggling and feeling her life spiraling out of control. And this line here: ‘Get an agent, get an agent. Can’t get anywhere without an agent’. The repetition is really effective. It speaks to her single-minded focus.”

Steve moved through the rest of the poem, pointing out words and phrases that he thought were particularly good.

Tony was stunned. “I thought you’d just tell me it looks like a big mess.”

“It does look like a mess,” Steve said. “But that’s a good thing because the subject matter is also a mess.”

“Why are you in intro to poetry anyway? You know all this stuff already.”

Steve shrugged. “It’s a prerequisite for my major.”

“Ah.”

Tony understood that all too well. He could work circles around all the other engineering students and even the professors, but they still insisted he had to take pointless classes to get his degree.

“I’m really glad you put a lot more effort into this poem,” Steve said. “The first one was just a jumble of words, but this is actually really good.”

“I didn’t put that much effort into it,” Tony admitted. “I didn’t do half of the stuff you talked about on purpose.”

“That’s impressive, then. You must have a natural talent.”

Tony shuddered.

Steve frowned. “Why are you so dead-set against poetry?”

“It’s boring. All these fluffy words and symbolism you have to figure out. And there’s no point to all of it. Who uses poetry in their daily lives anyway?”

“You’d be surprised. When I was your age, I was nothing to look at so poetry was the only way I could get any attention from girls.”

“And what if I’m not interested in girls right now?” Tony asked challengingly.

“I have it on good authority poetry works on boys, too.”

“It doesn’t work on me,” Tony said with a huff.

“Well, there’s no accounting for taste I suppose.”

“Alright, Mr. Shakespeare, let’s see your date-winning writing.” Tony snatched up Steve’s poem and groaned. “Flowers? Really? Could you write something any more-”

“You’re not grading the subject matter,” Steve reminded him. “You’re only looking at the technical aspects.”

Begrudgingly, Tony forced himself to look past Steve’s vivid descriptions of flowers to point out how evocative the descriptions were. Steve was good at imagery. There was probably a deeper meaning to the flowers, but Tony didn’t really care what it was and didn’t bother looking into it. All he had to do was look at the surface-level stuff.

He was very grateful when Pierce announced that class was over.

“See? That wasn’t too painful,” Steve said with a teasing smile.

Tony rolled his eyes and started packing up his stuff.

Steve hurried after him. “I know you think poetry is boring, but it doesn’t have to be. You wouldn’t consider your own poem boring, would you?”

“Nice try, Steve, but I’m never going to be an art major. Science is where it’s at.”

A dark-haired man in a hoodie peeled off from the wall and stalked over to Steve. He was kind of hot, but in a serial killer sort of way. Tony was super glad those piercing blue eyes were set on Steve and not him.

“Steve,” he growled. He paused and turned his murderous glare on Tony. “Who the hell is this?”

“This is Tony. He’s in my poetry class.” Steve flashed him a smile. “Tony, this is Bucky, my best friend.”

Tony held out a hand. "Nice to meet you, Bucky."

"It's James," the man corrected. "I'm only Bucky to my friends."

Tony brightened. “My best friend is named James too, but everyone calls him Rhodey.”

“Yeah, well, no one cares.”

“Buck,” Steve said warningly. “Be nice.”

“There are more important things to think about. Have you had a bite to eat yet, Steve?”

He put weird emphasis on the word bite, as if someone with Steve's build could ever maintain all those muscles by having a few nibbles here and there.

Steve sighed. “No, Buck. I’m waiting until after classes.”

“Good. Then we have time to compare notes before the next class.” He yanked Steve after him, giving Tony suspicious looks over his shoulder.

Well, he seemed like a ray of sunshine. Why was Steve even friends with him?


	3. Chapter 3

Tony was used to not getting along with people. Rhodey was sort of right. Some of the time it was his fault for antagonizing people. He didn’t really have a filter. But he had just met Bucky. He didn’t even have time to say one accidentally offensive thing.

And Rhodey was no help at all. Instead of listening to Tony’s account of their interaction and trying to figure out why Bucky was so offended by nothing, he spouted some nonsense about it clearly being Tony’s fault and then kicked him out of the dorm room so he could study for a test.

The only reason Tony could come up for Bucky’s blind hatred was that maybe Steve had told Bucky how badly their first critique had gone. And unlike Rhodey, maybe Bucky had listened and actually taken Steve’s side.

It was probably the only good thing Tony could say about Bucky.

He just seemed like an asshole. He was always scowling, always dragging Steve away from class like Tony was a bad influence he was protecting Steve from.

If anything, Steve was the bad influence. He had apparently made it his life’s mission to convince Tony poetry wasn't so bad. Every day, he brought in a new poem. Some of them were actually pretty funny, some of them were shockingly violent, others were almost pornographically explicit.

“Alright, you made your point,” Tony said. “Poetry isn’t all schmaltzy and romantic. But you’re never going to make me into a poet. I’m a scientist.”

“There’s plenty of room in the field for science-inspired poems. That could be your niche.”

“You didn’t like my science poem,” Tony pointed out.

Steve frowned. “That wasn’t a poem. It was just a big word dump. I hope you know enough to recognize the difference now.”

“Yeah, alright, you have a point.”

Steve smiled brightly. “Good. Next week, you should try writing an actual science poem.”

“You’re not a scientist, Steve. You wouldn’t understand it.”

“Just try me,” Steve said with a twinkle in his eye. “You’d be surprised what I’ve learned over the years.”

When they walked out of the classroom, Bucky’s usual sour expression darkened even further. He grabbed Steve’s arm and yanked him around the corner. “What the hell are you doing?” he hissed.

Steve pulled his arm out of Bucky’s grip. “We’re just talking about poetry.”

“You’re supposed to be staying away from Stark. He’s the last person you’re supposed to make friends with. So why are you so gone on him? Is he feeding you?”

“Bucky, we’ve been in class this whole time. Nothing happened.”

Bucky huffed. “We talked about this, Steve. I thought we both agreed not a single bite until after school.”

“I know and I didn’t.”

“Well, you look way too happy not to have had anything. So fess up. How much did you have?”

“Nothing, Buck. I swear.”

Tony had heard enough “Hey, if he’s hungry, he needs to eat.”

Bucky glared. “Fuck off, Stark. This is none of your business.”

“It is my business,” Tony insisted. “He’s my critique partner and he’s..kind of my friend, too. So, how about it, Steve? You wanna ditch this guy and have lunch with me in the food court?

Steve glanced back at Bucky.

“No! Don’t ask him permission to eat. You're a grown-ass adult. You get to make your own decisions. So, you coming or not?”

Bucky folded his arms over his chest and scowled.

“Sure,” Steve said with a shrug. “As long as you’re paying.”

Tony did a victory fist pump. “I’ll grab us a seat. You want burgers, Italian, or Chinese?”

Steve hummed thoughtfully. “Burgers.”

“Excellent choice.”

Tony staked out a small table in a quieter section of the food court and grabbed himself a club sandwich and double bacon cheeseburger for Steve.

Steve stared down at his plate. “This is a lot. You didn’t need to get me all this.”

“My best friend is an athlete too,” Tony said around a mouthful of sandwich. “He eats a lot to stay active. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to those muscles of yours.”

Steve smiled faintly. “This is totally unnecessary, but very nice of you.” He took a tentative bite of his burger. “And it does taste pretty good.”

“It’s about time someone did something nice for you,” Tony said. “Your best friend’s kind of a jerk.”

Steve frowned. “Bucky’s not that bad. He’s a little overprotective, but-”

“He was upset because you looked too happy, Steve. Just think about that.”

Steve paused mid-chew and swallowed. “That does sound bad when you put it like that.”

“It is bad.” He steepled his fingers. “So, why is your friend such a controlling jerk and why are you letting him get away with it?”

Steve sighed. “You don’t understand, Tony. Bucky’s not a bad guy. I was small and sickly when I was younger and Bucky had to look after me. He sometimes forgets I’m not that tiny little kid anymore.”

“Or maybe he’s trying to starve you so you’ll go back to being skinny and fragile and he can control you more easily.”

“He’s not starving me. I do eat,” Steve said with a huff. “Bucky and I are doing intermittent fasting and he’s my accountability partner.”

“So you’re just starving slowly then.”

Steve spread his arms out. “I don't look like I'm starving, do I?"

Tony sighed. “Steve, come on. You’re so hungry you're literally ripping into a packet of ketchup.”

Steve looked down, seemingly surprised to see the opened ketchup packet in his hand. “Oh.” He hastily shoved it under his napkin.

Tony folded his arms over his chest. “I rest my case.”

“Alright,” Steve said with a sigh. “Ketchup is kind of a guilty pleasure for me. I’m supposed to be eating a high protein diet and cutting out a lot of the carbs, but I can’t seem to give it up.” He reached for another ketchup packet and liberally drizzled it over his burger.

“You do you I suppose,” Tony murmured, watching all the excess ketchup drip out of Steve’s burger as he took a bite.

“So, as you can see, I’m perfectly fine. You do trust me when I say that, right?” Steve reached across the table and placed his hand on Tony’s.

Tony swallowed. Steve’s earnest smile was blinding. “I trust you,” he admitted.

Steve beamed at him. “Good. I’ll tell Bucky he has your seal of approval.”

“Hey, I didn’t say that.”

Maybe Bucky wasn’t starving Steve, but he was still a shitty friend. And kind of a shitty person in general.

But he was still Steve’s friend and if Steve was happy with their friendship, Tony would have to accept that.


	4. Chapter 4

Tony was extremely irritated when Pierce paired him up with Sunset Bain for the next critique.Logically, he knew being paired with Steve twice in a row was a fluke and Steve wasn’t his official partner or anything. But it was still annoying to have to start over working with someone else.

Steve met his eyes across the room and offered up a sad smile and a shrug.

He didn’t get along with Sunset. She was more interested in flirting with him than doing any critiquing so he just scribbled notes on her poem and gave up on any sort of feedback from her. He didn’t get along with Jane either. So when Pierce actually gave them the option to pick their own partners in week six, Tony was quick to snag Steve before anyone else did.

“Miss me that much?” Steve asked with a grin.

“You have no idea,” Tony grumbled. “Jane was weirdly even more intense about poetry than you are.”

Jane had at least been smart enough to understand all the science words Tony tossed in. She was working towards a dual major in molecular biology and poetry so she knew her stuff. But she had unreasonably rigid expectations of what a good poem should look like and she insisted words like hydraulics, acceleration, and oscilloscope were inappropriate for poetry and threw off the flow. It was so tempting to tear down her poem too, but Tony reminded himself that giving him a low grade reflected badly on her, not him. 

Steve chuckled. “I could take a look at it if you want. See if I could give you better feedback.”

“Yes, please.” Tony eagerly shoved his paper in Steve’s direction.

It was probably pretty sad that he had gotten to value Steve’s feedback over his critique partners’ and even over Pierce’s. When he eventually had to present an edited poem for the final, he was just going to incorporate Steve’s suggestions.

“I don’t know what you’re planning on doing with your art degrees, but you should really look into becoming a professor. I’m not going to lie, I wouldn’t be passing this class without you. But they really should have let you right into the advanced class.”

Steve shrugged and scribbled another note on Tony’s paper. “It’s just how college works.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. But you know so much and you know how to explain things in a way that makes sense. I thought I hated poetry, but you’ve shown me it’s not as bad as I thought. If I had had a teacher like you in elementary and high school, I might like poetry as much as you do.”

“That’s an incredible compliment,” Steve said. “But I’m not that good.”

“Of course you are. Dude, you don’t understand. The poems I write are just coming together. I’m not an artistic person at all, but I’ve felt so inspired. Something about you is just magical. I don’t know what it is, but you’re some kind of art things muse.”

Steve chuckled. “Don’t be silly. Look at me. Do I look like any sort of muse to you?”

Well, maybe Steve was a little too solidly built to be any sort of fae creature, but he had the face of a...no, hang on, what was wrong with Steve’s face? To Tony's great horror, the black started to leak out of Steve’s pupils like ink until his eyes were completely black.

Tony reared back. “Whoa! What the hell is with your eyes?”

Steve rapidly blinked his once again perfectly blue eyes, alarm showing on his face. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with them?”

Tony leaned forward and stared at Steve’s eyes intently. “I thought I saw….well, never mind. I must be hallucinating.”

Maybe Rhodey was right about the whole sleep deprivation thing.

“Tony,” Steve said hesitantly. “I have to talk to you about-”

“I know, I know. I should be getting more sleep, I should be taking care of myself better. All that good stuff.”

“Well, yes,” Steve said. “You should be taking care of yourself. Self-care is important.” He fidgeted in his seat. “But it’s more than that. I’ll have to explain later, after class. I’ll uh...be right back.” He shouldered his backpack and hurried out of the room.

Well, that wasn’t suspicious at all.

Tony waited for a minute or two and when Steve still hadn’t come back, he decided he was going after him. Maybe there was something wrong with Steve after all. And if Steve was ill or hurt, he couldn’t just leave him to fend for himself.

Since class was still in session, the hallway was pretty empty and Tony spotted Steve right away, pacing up and down the hallway with his phone clutched in his hand.

But before he could get his attention, Bucky shoved through the arts building’s outer door and stormed over to Steve.

Tony took a step back around the corner. Was this whole thing Bucky’s fault again? Could you hit someone hard enough to make their eyes bleed black? No, that sounded ridiculous.

“So, what’s going?” Bucky demanded. “It sounded really urgent.”

Steve bounced on his heels. “Buck! You won’t believe what happened today.”

“Did you eat?”

“No, and stop asking me that. You’re making people suspicious.”

“Just Stark.”

“And in case you’ve forgotten, he is in fact, human.”

“I’ve never forgotten. But I think you could use a reminder from time to time.” He gave Steve a pointed look.

“It doesn’t matter anymore. Tony and I are bonded.”

“What? Are you serious? The whole…” Bucky gestured to his face.

Steve nodded.

“Stark, of all people,” Bucky said with a shake of his head. “He’s so immature.”

“No more than we were at that age.”

“So, how much did you tell him?”

“Nothing yet.”

“Maybe you should keep it that way. Wait a few years until he’s had time to grow up a little. You at least know where his life is going. You could keep an eye on him and see if he’s more stable when he’s settled in at his company.”

“I don’t want to wait. Who knows how long I’ll have with him? Peggy and I had only two years together, Buck. Two years.”

“Tony’s not a soldier, Steve. He’s not going to get killed in battle.”

“Life isn’t certain, Buck. He could get struck by a bus tomorrow. I might only have this one chance to make it work.”

Bucky sighed heavily. “I still think you ought to wait a few years, but I know you won’t listen to me. So you better get over there and ask him out properly before he comes barging in to ask you himself.”

Tony gasped and ducked down behind a trash can. How did Bucky know he was there? He was around the corner. He shouldn’t have been able to see him.

A few seconds later, Steve poked his head around the corner. “Hey, Tony. How much of that did you hear?”

“Enough, I think. You want to ask me out.”

Steve nodded and slipped his hand into Tony’s. “If it’s okay with you, let’s go eat someplace off-campus and talk about this.”


	5. Chapter 5

Tony was very glad Steve was open to the idea of eating off-campus for their first date. It gave them freedom to hang out without the chance of Bucky lurking around, breathing down their necks. And besides, who wanted to eat at Burgh, Pastabilities or Tako Mako’s when there were actual restaurants out there?

Steve didn’t like Tony spending a lot of money on him. He didn’t come from a wealthy family and wasn’t used to so much extravagance. It was probably where that whole intermittent fasting nonsense had come from. 

But Tony insisted that their first date needed to be somewhere a little more special and Steve had caved.

Tony definitely had questions for Steve. There were the usual first-date questions. What was his family like? Was he working to pay for school? What was he planning after graduating? And then there was the question of what the hell had happened with his eyes?

But all his questions died out when Steve reached for the bottle of ketchup.

Steve had a perfectly good New York strip, cooked black and blue because he liked his cow still mooing, as Tony’s father would say. But he apparently wasn’t happy with his meat unless it was covered in ketchup. And to Tony’s great horror, Steve continued to douse his mashed potatoes and zucchini.

Steve really wasn’t kidding about his ketchup obsession.

Tony desperately wanted to know what the hell made a person enjoy ketchup on everything, but he didn’t press. Steve was pretty tight-lipped about his past. He didn’t have a happy childhood, from the little bits and pieces he had gleaned. It was probably a coping mechanism he had picked up along the way. Tony’s childhood hadn’t been great either, but he hadn’t been constantly sick as a child and even though his parents were always off at some charity fundraiser or business trip, at least he still had parents.

If Steve didn’t want to talk about his past or his family life, that was okay. There were plenty of other things to talk about on dates. Like Steve’s newest performance art of Tony’s latest engineering project. Maybe too much of their social life was tied to their schoolwork, but hey, they were college students. They didn’t have time for much of a social life.

For the midterm, Pierce assigned them a poetry mash-up. They could all choose their partners, someone they felt had a different style than their own and together, they would write a single poem combining their two styles.

Obviously, Tony chose Steve as his partner. They definitely had different writing styles. But really, he just wanted an excuse to work with his boyfriend.

Pierce assigned their midterm project Friday afternoon and it wasn’t due until Wednesday, which meant there was no real rush to get it done, but Steve insisted on starting work on it as soon as class was over. Tony usually procrastinated on his projects, but Steve did have a point. If they got it over with quickly, they had the rest of the weekend to do fun stuff.

Tony linked his hand with Steve’s and led him over towards the dorm. “I know you probably have laser focus and can just knock out a poem or two in an hour, but I like to eat while I work. It gets the creative juices flowing.”

Steve chuckled. “Whatever works for you.”

“The kitchen’s pretty much non-existent. There’s only a little bit of counter space. But the living room isn’t that cramped.” He pushed open the door. “Welcome to my home sweet away from…” He froze.

Rhodey was sitting on the couch with a book in his lap.

Fuck. He wasn’t supposed to be here.

“I should have known this place would become party central when I’m gone,” Rhodey said with a rueful smile. “So who’s your special friend?”

“None of your business. Don’t you have somewhere to be? Like basketball practice?”

“Nope. It got cancelled. Coach’s daughter went into early labor.”

Great. Just Tony’s fucking luck.

“Since Tony doesn’t have any manners, it looks like I’ll have to introduce myself.” Rhodey set his book aside. “James Rhodes, but Tony just calls me Rhodey.”

“Ah, the best friend,” Steve said with a sage nod. “It’s good to meet you. I’m Steve.”

Rhodey sat up a little straighter. “Oh, is this Poetry Guy Steve?”

Steve frowned. “Uh, I guess? I am in Tony’s poetry class.”

“Aha. Tony’s told me so much about you.”

Tony didn’t like the shark-like smile on his best friend’s face or the mischievous gleam in his eyes. “Enough chit-chat. Steve and I have a project to do so could you clear out for a couple hours?”

“And does your project involve getting to know Steve a whole lot better? Like in the Biblical sense?” He waggled his eyebrows.

“No, you asshole. I didn’t bring Steve here to have sex. We have actual work to do. Tell him, Steve.”

“It’s our midterm, actually,” Steve said. “We’re combining our poetry styles.”

“Well, well, well,” Rhodey said. “What a romantic idea. The two of you writing poetry for each other. Now this I gotta see.”

“You’re not going to see anything,” Tony snapped. “Get lost so we can do our work in peace.”

Rhodey shook his head and leaned back on the couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table. “I live here, Tones. I’m not going anywhere.” He gestured to the metal folding table shoved in the corner. “You two lovebirds are free to set up over there if you like. I promise to keep quiet while you work.” He patted his abandoned textbook.

No, Tony didn’t trust that for a second. Rhodey was definitely going to be nosy as hell and try to make them as uncomfortable as possible. And he wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction.

He yanked on Steve’s arm. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I have another idea.”

It wasn’t as convenient as just walking across campus to the dorms, but it was only a fifteen minute drive and Tony was kind of pleased that he had a chance to show off the bright yellow Spyder convertible he had gotten for his birthday.

Steve had seemed relaxed and impressed until Tony pulled off main road and up the long, winding gated path to the mansion.

“This doesn’t look like a library,” he said dubiously.

“I never said it was. This is Stark mansion, which is actually home for me.”

Tony didn’t bother parking his car in the garage. His father wasn’t due home for another day anyway so he wasn’t going to see his sloppy parking job.

“Whoa,” Steve said. “I thought you lived in the dorm.”

“I do. Well, kind of. I crash in my buddy Rhodey’s dorm most of the time because Dad and I are always fighting.” Tony punched in the security code for the front door and pushed it open. “My room is at the top of the stairs. Go get set up and I’ll get us some snacks.”

Steve was still standing in the doorway, a shell-shocked look on his face.

Tony sighed and turned back to retrieve him. “Come on, don’t be like this,” he said as he tugged at Steve’s arm. “It’s not that spectacular.”

“Tony, it looks like a museum,” Steve protested. “I don’t think I should be here.”

“Yes, you should. This is the only place I know where we can really spread out and work on our shit. Now, I didn’t invite you over to just stand in the doorway and look pretty. Get your ass inside already.”

Tony gave his arm another strong tug, expecting Steve to keep being obstinate. But Steve went easily this time and Tony almost fell through the doorway.

“Well, as long as I’m invited,” Steve murmured, casting a dubious look at the chandelier.

Tony probably should have cleaned his bedroom a little better before inviting Steve over, but he shoved his laptop, chemistry book, and yesterday’s shirt off the bed so he could sit down beside Steve.

“I scored us some chips and dip,” Tony said triumphantly. And yes, before you ask, I got you a bottle of ketchup because I know you’re a goddamn monster.”

Steve stiffened. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Tony said quickly. “I shouldn’t judge. Why is it socially acceptable to dip chips in salsa but not ketchup? I mean, they’re both tomato-based. And it’s completely normal to dip fries in ketchup. Maybe-”

“It’s alright, Tony,” Steve murmured. He pulled his notebook out of his backpack. “Let’s talk about how we want to describe our poetry styles.”

Tony flopped back on the bed with a groan. “Can’t we just write something and figure it out as we go? Does it have to be planned? Or can maybe you just do the planning and I do the winging? Hey, that could be a style difference.”

Steve’s mouth thinned into a flat line. “First of all, that’s not-” He froze. “Tony, I hear someone.”

Tony listened intently and he could just make out the sound of a door slam and distant footsteps. “It’s probably Jarvis, our butler. I told him to take the week off because Mom and Dad are at events and I was going to be fine on my own. But he just can’t resist checking up on me I guess.”

“Anthony! We’ve talked about leaving the car in the driveway.”

“Shit,” Tony said with a heavy sigh. “You stay here. I’ll be right back.”

He slipped out of his bedroom, carefully closing it behind him. “Hey, Dad. Welcome home.”

“None of that,” Howard grumbled. “What have I told you about keeping your door open when you have girls over?” He flung Tony’s bedroom door back open.

Steve and Howard stared at each other

“You!” Howard growled.

Steve swallowed. “Mr. Stark, sir.”

"Dad, this is Steve, my poetry project partner.”

“Get out!” Howard commanded. “And I never want to see you around my son ever again. Your kind isn’t welcome here.”

“Yes, sir,” Steve said. He quickly began gathering up his supplies.

Tony’s jaw dropped. “Dad! What the hell is wrong with you?” He put a hand on Steve’s arm. “No, you don’t have to leave. Dad’s being an asshole.”

“I’ll see you in class,” Steve said quietly. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and hurried out of the room.

“Good,” Howard said. “It looks like I got here just in time.”

“Just in time for what? Scaring off my project partner? Well, congratulations, I’m going to fail my midterm now.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Tony. This isn’t about your project.”

“Then what the hell do you think it’s about? You think I brought him home for a quick fuck?” 

Goddamn, Tony knew he had a reputation but it hurt that everyone assumed he was only in it for the sex. He and Steve had gone on five whole dates and they hadn’t had sex once, so there.

“And what with the ‘your kind’ bullshit. What the hell was that all about? Are you being an asshole because he’s poor or because he’s gay? You don’t want your precious reputation tarnished by your son hanging around undesirables, right?”

“I’m protecting you,” Howard hissed. “He’s a vampire.”

“Bullshit. He doesn’t give a damn about my money or my-”

“You’re not listening to me, Tony. He’s a vampire, an actual vampire.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“No, l’ll prove it to you.” Howard led Tony down the hall and tapped a picture on the wall. “This is a picture of me and some of the boys in my unit during the war. See someone familiar? Someone that looks like your Steve?”

Tony groaned. “Oh my god, Dad. Are you serious? Plenty of people look just like historical figures. It’s even a meme on the internet. Haven’t you seen all those pictures of people posing next to paintings from the 1800s or whatever that literally look like someone painted them? So Steve looks a lot like this guy you knew in the army. It happens. I wouldn’t immediately jump to him being an immortal vampire.”

“If I had only seen him once, I could dismiss it as a coincidence. But this is no coincidence.” Howard rustled through the box of old family photos and produced a very old photo that was yellowed with age. “This is a picture of your grandfather’s regiment. And this soldier right here in the very front is your Steve.”

Tony squinted at the black and white image of a scrawny soldier who was practically drowning in his uniform, his helmet slipping down over his face.

“And I’m supposed to believe that guy’s Steve? He looks nothing like him.”

“Well, not at the moment,” Howard admitted. “But just imagine-”

“I don’t want to hear it, Dad. No more crazy conspiracy theories. You’re just embarrassing yourself now.”

“Anthony Edward Stark. I am trying to keep you safe from that monster.”

“The only monster in this house is you. I can’t believe you’re so prejudiced and homophobic that you have to come up with this bullshit. I just...I can;t even look at you right now. I’m going to Rhodey’s for the weekend.” He shoved a change of clothes and his textbooks into a backpack. Rhodey would understand. He was often showing up without notice after he and Howard had a fight. But boy was this a doozy.

“You stay away from that creature, Tony,” Howard called after him. “He’s going to bleed you dry.”

Tony rolled his eyes and slammed the door behind him.

Shit like this was why he was always spending most of his time at Rhodey’s.


	6. Chapter 6

Tony didn’t hear from Steve all weekend and he didn’t show up to class on Monday either. He had probably decided he wanted nothing more to do with Tony or his crazy family, but Tony wasn’t about to let things go without an apology. If Steve still felt too hurt to stay with Tony afterwards, so be it. But at least he would have tried to make amends.

Tony knew that Steve had a class in the performing arts building first thing Tuesday morning, so he arrived early and camped outside with a big cup of coffee.

Steve had to have seen him standing there, but he walked briskly past, making a beeline for the building.

“Steve! Steve, wait up.” Tony grabbed the sleeve of Steve’s jacket. “We have to talk about this.”

Steve wouldn’t meet his eyes. “There’s nothing to talk about. I’ll keep my distance.”

“No, that’s not what I want. I’m so sorry for what happened. My dad’s fucking crazy. He’s got it into his head that you’re an immortal vampire because you look like a guy he served with in the army and I want to apologize for all of that.”

Steve swallowed and looked away.

“Steve?”

“I’m afraid your dad’s right,” Steve said with a sheepish smile.

“What? Steve, there’s no way-”

“No, you deserve to know the truth.” Steve glanced around carefully and then bared his teeth, showing off sharp canine teeth that looked a lot like fangs.

“Holy shit,” Tony said. He took an involuntary step back. “Holy shit.”

Steve hunched in on himself, pulling his jacket tighter. “I’m not going to hurt you, Tony. But if I make you uncomfortable, I can-”

“I can’t believe vampires actually exist,” Tony said. “I thought it was all just fairy tales and myth. But whoa, maybe Dracula’s actually a true story.”

“Er, no,” Steve said. “Maybe some bits are true, but overall, it’s a lot of wild exaggeration.”

“So what’s real then? Does garlic hurt you?”

“Sort of. But it’s more of a food allergy than an actual threat.”

“Not being able to enter a holy place?”

“Not holy places, specifically. We can’t enter any dwelling without the resident’s permission.”

Tony stared at him. “What about the whole sunlight thing?”

“I’m not burning up, am I?” Steve shook his head. “It’s a ridiculous superstition.”

“And the whole not being able to enter a house thing is somehow less ridiculous?

Steve frowned. “You’re awfully calm about all this. I thought you’d be scared.”

"Why should I be? You write poetry. You’re the least threatening person I know.”

Steve sighed. “I feed on blood, Tony. I’m a threat to all humans.”

Tony blinked. “Do you kill people?”

“I try very hard not to.”

“Okay then.”

“Okay? Just like that?”

“What do you want me to say, Steve? You don’t kill people, you can’t break into anybody’s house. You’re not scary. You’re just a dude that drinks blood every...every how often you drink it.”

“It’s been a couple years,” Steve admitted.

“There, you see? You’re not scary. You only...you only drink blood every few years?”

“I could drink more often than that, but it would raise suspicion pretty quickly. Blood makes us physically younger.”

“Oh! Just like Dracula.”

Steve grimaced. “I suppose.”

“So you only look like you’re in your twenties. How old are you then?”

“Not sure. I think I was born sometime in the 1800s.”

“Holy shit you’re old.”

Steve glared at him. “I was born to a poor family in Ireland. We were always starving and I was always sickly. When my ma took ill with the fever our family was devastated. We consulted everyone in our village about a cure. Eventually, a strange man showed up on our doorstep and promised he’d have a cure for my mother if I came to work on his farm. But there was no cure. He took down a back alley and turned me. I wasn’t his first and I probably won’t be his last. A lot of people went missing in those days, mostly children. Growing up, we heard stories of The Red Man, a tall, gaunt man who roamed the streets with his face covered in blood.”

Tony shuddered. “So that really was you in my grandpa’s old WWII photos.”

Steve nodded.  
“You were so small and scrawny back then. What happened?”

“It’s a long story.” Steve glanced over his shoulder.

“Oh, right. You’re running late..” Tony took a step backward. “I’ll catch you after class.”

“No, stay. You deserve to know. And it’s an art history class anyway. I can afford to skip a meeting or two.” Steve patted the wall outside the arts building. “Have a seat. It’s going to be a lot to take in.”

Tony sat and dutifully waited as Steve seemed to search for a way to begin.

“I don’t think I explained to you what happened in class the day my eyes went black. It was the sign that you’re my mate.”

“Wait, so we’re vampire married now?”

“No, it’s not necessarily a romantic mating. It’s more like soulmates.”

“Still sounds romantic to me.”

“It can be. As in our case.” Steve smiled and intertwined his fingers with Tony’s. “But it’s simply when a vampire finds a human they know will be a safe person for them. Someone who won’t hunt them down and kill them for what they are. Someone they can count on to help them blend in with mankind.

You’re not my first mate. The first was Peggy Carter. She was one hell of a woman,” Steve said wistfully. “Bold, brave, beautiful. She was serving as a nurse, even though she could have done so much more. But it was 1917 and women didn’t have a role in the military back then. Luckily, she could use her position to provide all the blood I needed. The blood of the dead and they dying didn’t taste great, but it kept me strong and it took the edge off my hunger so I was never tempted to feed on my fellow soldiers.

But the military hospital she served in was bombed in mid-1918. When she was killed, I lost myself. I went on a rampage, killing all the enemy soldiers I could get my hands on. I don’t know how many men I killed or how long I went berserk, but by the time I came back to my senses, I had the body of a child.”

Tony blinked. “That’s...damn, that must have been a lot.”

“I’ve lost count. But it’s proof of how dangerous I can be.”

“You won’t hurt me. We’re mates, remember?”

“The mate thing doesn’t work both ways I’m afraid. You won’t kill me, but there’s nothing preventing me from killing you..”

“That’s really unfair.”

“It is what it is. And I don’t want you to ever forget that, Tony. I could be a threat to you one day.”

“But you don’t like killing people.”

“I don’t. I was so ashamed of how badly I’d lost control after the war, of how many people I’d killed. I vowed I would never drink blood again. Bucky’s family saw me only as an orphaned little boy and they took me. I aged just like a regular human without blood, but after awhile, I became frail and sickly from malnourishment. If Bucky hadn’t almost died in the war, I might have wasted away to nothing. But he was captured by the Germans as a POW and close to death. I couldn’t lose him and the only way I could save him was to turn him.”

“So let me get this straight. You two are immortal vampires and all you can think to do with your life is bounce around from college to university?”

Steve shrugged. “I like to learn. And if you have all the time in the world, why not learn a little bit of everything? I’ve got a couple hundred degrees under my belt now.”

“Nerd,” Tony said fondly. “You want to come over tonight and work on our poem again? Dad went off on another trip so the coast is clear.”

“Tony, I can’t.”

“Right, because Dad kicked you out. But what if I invited you back in?”

“I don’t know if it works that way.”

“We can at least try. Come on, Steve, it’s the best place to spread out and work.”

“Well, I can give it a shot I guess. I have classes until two, but I’ll come by after.”

Tony nodded. “See you then.”

He had another two hours to kill before his first class so he spent his time in the library poring through all the books on vampires. A lot of the information was pretty contradictory and straight up wrong from what Steve had told him. He was a little surprised there wasn’t a single book with accurate information. But maybe that was on purpose. Maybe the vampires had a hand in that and were spreading misinformation to keep themselves hidden.

Tony’s last class of the day got out at noon because Tuesday was his easy day. He had a lab session late in the evening as well, but it shouldn’t take that long to write a single poem together. They had plenty of time.

A few minutes before two, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it!” Tony shouted. It was probably Steve and he definitely didn’t want Jarvis there if it turned out Steve couldn’t actually come inside.

He was disappointed to see Bucky glaring at him from the porch.

“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Ray of Sunshine.”

“Stay away from Steve,” Bucky growled.

Tony rolled his eyes. “Spare me the whole scary vampire act. I can just walk right back inside and you can’t do a damn thing to stop me.”

Bucky grabbed the front of Tony’s shoulder and yanked him closer. “Now you listen to me and you listen good. Steve wants this stupid art degree and I’m not going to let you or your asshole father get in the way of that. So you stay away from him, let him do his thing, and nobody gets hurt.”

“I would rather die than hurt him,” Tony said.

Whoa, where did that come from?

Bucky seemed equally surprised. He just stood there a moment, staring at Tony and blinking. Between one blink and the next, Bucky’s eyes went completely black.

“Ha!” Tony said triumphantly. He pointed a finger at Bucky. “I knew you were full of shit. All that talk about protecting Steve from me is just because you wanted me for yourself.”

“Absolutely not,” Bucky growled. “I don’t even like you.”

“Then why are your eyes black?”

“I don’t know,” Bucky hissed. He dragged a hand over his face. “Fuck. Steve’s going to kill me.”

“He certainly will,” Tony said cheerfully.

Bucky shot him a savage glare and disappeared around the side of the house.

Well then. Tony was used to people vying for his attention, but this was just ridiculous. He shook his head and headed back up the stairs towards his bedroom.

The doorbell rang again.

“I’ll get it,” Tony said with a sigh.

Steve was at the door, one hand tightly gripping the back of Bucky’s hoodie. Bucky had his head down, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but back at Tony’s doorstep.

Tony smirked and leaned against the door frame. “So, did he tell you what he did or can vampires just sense when their best friend has the hots for their mate?”

“He couldn’t help himself,” Steve said. “You’re his mate, too.”

“Seriously?”

Why would a grump like Bucky consider him mate material?

Steve nodded. “Out of curiosity, what did you do right before his eyes went black?”

“Nothing,” Tony said. “I was just talking to him. Told him to stop breathing down my neck because I was never going to hurt you.”

“That would do it,” Steve said. He smiled fondly at Bucky.

Bucky huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I still don’t like him.”

“Nobody said you had to. Mates aren’t necessarily romantic. But if he’s your mate, you have to admit he has some redeeming qualities.”

Bucky’s lip curled in disgust.

“We’ll talk this all over later. But for now, let me walk him back to the bus stop and then we’ll get settled in our work.”

Tony blinked as the door shut in front of him. He had just started to get a handle on Steve being a vampire and the whole mates thing and Bucky had completely thrown him for a loop.

Jarvis stepped into the foyer with a polishing cloth.“Anthony? Who was at the door?”

“Oh, just a few friends from school.”

“You certainly have an active social life.”

“You have no idea.”


	7. Chapter 7

Steve returned to the house fifteen minutes later, looking all apologetic

“Bucky doesn’t trust people easily,” Steve said. “Let’s just say that becoming a vampire was a traumatic experience for him. He’s gotten used to keeping people at arm’s length so he doesn’t have to watch them get old and die.”

“I’m a long way from getting old and dying,” Tony said.

“But you will eventually.”

“If he wants to avoid people for the rest of eternity because we’re all mortal, that’s really sad, but it’s his choice. But it’s not right for him to try and make that choice for you too.”

“He’s not.”

Tony just rolled his eyes. Steve could believe whatever he wanted, but Tony knew what was going on.

Steve, unfortunately, still couldn’t enter Stark mansion no matter how many different ways Tony made it clear that Steve was absolutely welcome in the house so they had to head back to campus and set up in the library.

It was a good thing the poetry mash-up midterm was just as easy as Tony had thought. It only took an hour, and that was with time spent wandering to the vending machines to buy a bag of chips.

Before the midterm, Tony’s grade in the class was a solid B, which was surprising. He had just been hoping to squeak by with a C-. But now he was almost eager to get the midterm back and see if it bumped him up at all. An A was maybe too much to ask for, but he was aspiring for a B+ now.

Pierce promised to return the midterms by the next week so all Tony could do now was wait and keep working along on his poems to keep his grade up.

Too bad his dad didn’t care what an amazing accomplishment that was. Howard didn’t care about a lot of things, as far as Tony was concerned. Even the danger of vampires. For all the fuss he put up about Steve, he wasn’t doing anything more than yelling. Already, he was on another business trip. But at least that meant Tony could stay home and work on his poetry in peace.

Tony was almost done with the next poem when he was distracted by a tapping sound outside his window. He didn’t think any of the trees out front were all that tall, but if they could bang up against the roof, his father would want to know about it. He’d be furious if it got really windy out and the trees started scraping some of the roofing tiles.

The tapping became more insistent and Tony frowned. It wasn’t that windy out. What the hell was all that racket? He pulled back the curtains and looked outside.

Bucky was standing on the roof right outside Tony’s window.

“What the hell?”

Bucky put his hands on his hips. “You gonna invite me in or what?”

“Oh yeah, because it’s totally a good idea for me to invite an angry vampire into my bedroom. Hell no.”

“I don’t have to come inside to wreck your shit. I can bust a few windows. I’m sure your folks will love that.”

“Ugh, fine.” Tony unlatched the window and yanked it open. “Come on in, asshole.”

Bucky swung his legs over the windowsill and landed noiselessly on Tony’s floor. “We need to talk.”

Tony groaned. “Oh, come on. Not this again. You heard what Steve said. I can’t hurt him.”

“Not on purpose. But you can still fuck things up for him indirectly if you tell people he’s a vampire.”

“Why would I do that? I’m not an idiot, Bucky.”

“I mean it, Tony. Not your best friend, not your parents. Nobody.”

“My dad already knows. That’s how I found out in the first place.

“He suspects,” Bucky said. “You don’t need to confirm it.”

“What about you?”

Bucky frowned. “What about me?”

“You’re not going to get all scary and intimidating and insist that I leave you to be all dark and moody in peace?”

“I don’t need to. If you keep Steve safe, it’ll keep me safe.”

“Of course. The two of you are just that codependent. So what’s with you and Steve anyway? Is Steve cheating on you with me?”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “No, Steve’s not cheating on me. First of all, we have more of a friend’s with benefits agreement and you can’t cheat on someone if you’re not in a relationship with them. And secondly, you and Steve aren’t even having sex.”

“How would you know that?”

“Because Steve’s libido has never been that active. He’ll spend time with you, maybe take you out to dinner or to a movie. But you’ll get sex maybe once in a blue moon. I hope you’re prepared for that.”

“I don’t trust you. You’re probably just saying that to make Steve look bad.”

“I’m not kidding you, doll,” Bucky said with a malevolent smirk. “My libido ain’t what it used to be either. Because we vampires have found something better. You humans think sex is all that, but blood drinking is ten times better every time.” 

Tony took a step backward as Bucky advanced towards him until the back of his knees hit the bed.

“There’s nothing quite like it,” Bucky purred. “A warm, willing body beneath you. The flutter of their pulse under your hands. And when you bite down, their blood is warm and sweet and they make such pretty noises when you drink them down. It’s a moment of sheer rapture for everyone involved.” He grinned, a flash of fangs. “You feel up for that kind of pleasure, darling?”

Tony swallowed and tipped his head back, exposing his throat.

Bucky pulled back with a frown. “You were actually going to let me bite you, weren’t you?”

“Why not? You make it sound like sex twice over.”

“You shouldn’t make that kind of offer to a vamp, especially one that hasn’t fed in awhile. I could suck you dry right now.”

Tony huffed. “Then you shouldn’t have made it sound so appealing.”

“Trust me, babe, if Steve wasn’t so determined to play human and go for another degree, I’d take you up on your little death wish. But we have another two years to go before Steve’s done with all his classes and both of us have to stay strong.”

“Your suffering is truly tragic. So you staying the night or what?”

Bucky frowned. “I don’t sleep.”

“Well, unfortunately I do. So if you’re going to camp out here all night, I’m going to need you to get off my bed and go brood in one of the corners.” He made a shooing motion in Bucky’s direction.

Bucky frowned. “You really have no concern for your safety, do you? I could kill you in your sleep.”

“I mean, you could. But I know you won’t. Because Steve would be really disappointed if you killed me.”

Bucky huffed. “You’re lucky Steve’s such a softie.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Tony slipped his shirt off over his head and crawled in over the covers. “Feel free to leave anytime. Nobody’s making you stay.”

Tony didn’t sleep much but when he did, he crashed pretty hard. So he was pretty much asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He woke sometime later to a loud crash and jerked upright, surprised to see Bucky still looming over him.

“Holy shit, you’re still here. So you’re really going to watch over me all night, huh? You’re like my very own angel of death.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Bucky said gruffly. “I’d be long gone already, but there are people downstairs, I don’t want to draw suspicion.”

Now that Tony was paying attention, he could hear his father lecturing Jarvis about leaving Tony to his own devices for the week. Like Jarvis was somehow supposed to anticipate Tony befriending a vampire.

“I mean, it’s not the first time Dad’s caught me with an overnight guest,” Tony said with a chuckle. “But if he recognized Steve, he might recognize you, right?”

Bucky nodded grimly.

“And what’s stopping you from jumping back out the window?”

Bucky parted the curtain. “Have a look out front.”

Tony peered out the window. Ah, fuck. His mom was back from her charity gala early.

“Alright, here’s what we’ll do. I’ll go distract Mom by asking about how her gala went and you book it out of here.”

The Maria Stark Charity Foundation did a lot of good for people, Tony knew, but his mother could talk for hours and hours and hours about the food, the wine, the decor, what people were wearing. 

Tony took a deep breath, gearing up for the inevitable long-winded account and marched down the stairs. “Hey, Dad, welcome home.” Tony made a show of pulling his collar aside to show off that he hadn’t been bitten by a vampire yet just because he knew it would irritate him and then greeted his mother at the door with a hug and a warm smile. “Mother. How was your night?”

“Darling, you’ll never guess how much money was donated tonight. I think this might be a new record. The Miltons were very generous this year and even Mrs. Jones gave us a donation. Sometimes I think that woman just comes to our events for the food.”

Tony gritted his teeth. Bucky better be fucking grateful.

It took Tony almost an hour to find a natural lull in his mother’s rambling and extract himself to head back to his bedroom. He hadn’t heard Bucky leave, which was kind of the point. His mother’s droning was supposed to cover that up. But he was eager to check in and make sure he had actually made good his escape.

He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw his bedroom empty and pushed the window closed.  
The next day at school was a little rough because Tony hadn’t quite gotten enough sleep, but it was fine. He had made it through a day on less. But he was looking forward to getting home and taking a nap for an hour before he started his engineering homework.

Unfortunately, he knew a nap was out of the question when he opened his bedroom door to find Bucky sprawled out across his bed, leafing through his chemistry textbook.

“What the fuck are you doing in here?”

“You left your window unlocked. If you didn’t want visitors, maybe you should have been more careful.”

“I shouldn’t have to,” Tony argued. “I’m on the second floor.”

“And yet here I am,” Bucky said. “You’re lucky I’m not a burglar.”

“Really not feeling all that lucky right now.”

Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “Steve wanted me to check up on you and make sure things are still cool between you and your parents.”

“And he couldn’t have waited to ask me that before class tomorrow?”

Bucky huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “Steve said since I was the one who put you in danger in the first place, I had to check up on you.”

Tony smirked. “Well, you can tell Steve that I was forced to endure a blow by blow of my mom’s boring rich person party because of you.”

“Don’t care,” Bucky said. “As long as your parents didn’t think anything was weird about that.”

“Nah,” Tony said. “Dad’s still pretty certain vampires are lurking around every corner, but that’s nothing new.”

“Good. My job is done.” Bucky scrambled back out the window.

The next evening, Tony was once again rudely interrupted from his homework by a rap on the window.

Tony groaned and glanced out the window.

Bucky was standing on the roof again. He pointed to the window latch and gave Tony a thumb’s up.

“You seriously came all this way to make sure I locked my window?”

Bucky stuck out his tongue and hopped off the roof.

Tony rolled his eyes. Goddamn dramatic vampires. Being mortal didn’t mean he was that fragile. He wasn’t going to die if they took their eyes off him for a second.


	8. Chapter 8

From there, Tony found Bucky outside his widow almost every night. Most of the time, Bucky seemed to just be doing a drive-by check on Tony’s security. But some of the time, he wanted to actually come in and bitch to Tony about Steve. Tony didn’t really care about Bucky’s great vampire woes and he didn’t know why Bucky had chosen him to vent to, but Bucky had just given a look like Tony was stupid and reminded him that he had a distinct lack of people who knew about him and Steve being vampires so Tony was better than nobody.

How the fuck had this become his life?

“You don’t understand,” Bucky whined. “Steve’s hungry all the time. I mean, I’m hungry too. I’d much rather be somewhere in Brazil feeding on a couple of drunk college girls on spring break. But he’s always so fucking hungry and that’s all I hear all the time. ‘Bucky, I’m starving. I can’t do this anymore’. And I have to tell him to he can’t eat because to needs to get through the rest of these fucking classes.”

“And how is that your problem?”

“If Steve breaks and goes on a blood binge, he can easily lose 5 to 10 years and then nobody’s going to believe he’s the same guy and he’s not going to get this fucking degree he worked so hard for.”

“Again, how is that your problem? If Steve fucks up and doesn’t finish his degree, he can just start over at another university, right? He has all the time in the world to go to classes. If it takes another fifty years before Steve can make it through a whole degree, so be it. But don’t wear yourself out looking after him.”

Bucky opened his mouth and then closed it again. You have a point.”

“Of course I do. I’m a genius.”

Briefly, Tony worried that he had made a huge mistake. What if Bucky holding him back was the only thing preventing Steve from going on a feeding frenzy?

But Steve still looked exactly the same when he showed up to class and Tony hadn’t heard of any mysterious mass hospitalizations or murders in the area. So it looked like Steve was managing to control his urges without Bucky acting like a controlling dick. Who would have thought?

Usually Bucky liked to sprawl out across Tony’s bed while he did his ranting, but by late February, he had started piling blankets on top of Tony’s bed and wrapping himself in them like he was nesting.

“What the hell are you doing? Are you cold or something?”

Bucky sighed. “Don’t laugh.”

“I’m not laughing.”

“We only really need to feed every five years or so before our bodies start wasting away. But about three or four years in, we start feeling a little more human. We’re more susceptible to the weather, we feel a little tired.” He sighed and wrapped the blanket around his shoulders. “Steve’s lucky I love him so much. I wouldn’t put up with this shit for just anybody.”

“And the two of you have never considered, oh, I don’t know, feeding a bit at a time every year or two? Maybe not take enough to deage you into teenagers, just enough to look like you’ve got really good genes and you’ll look young for a long time.”

“Don’t think we haven’t tried that. Stevie can’t really stop himself once he starts drinking and when I smell blood, it just drives me mad and I have to drink. I had to skip two classes already this month because some chick was on her period. And it’s only going to get worse.”

“You could drink a little from me. You wouldn’t kill me. You like me too much.”

“Eh,” Bucky said with a little handwavey motion.

“Shut up, yes you do.

There was a rap against the window.

Tony stared at Bucky. 

Bucky burrowed further into his nest. “You gonna get that or what?”

Tony pushed back the curtain. “Oh, Steve. You’re actually able to be up here? I thought you had to stay away from the house.”

“As long as I don’t come inside, I’m fine.” He pressed his hands against the window and waved to Bucky. “You look really comfortable and I hate to disturb you, but Natasha called for us.”

Bucky groaned. “Can’t you just go? Tell her I’m fine.”

“She wants to see for herself. You haven’t been to the lair in the last month and she’s gotten a little worried.”

“That house is drafty as shit, Stevie. Why would I spend my time there when Tony’s bedroom is so much more comfortable?”

“I don’t make the rules, Buck. And I hear we’ve got a new couch.”

“Oh yeah, because a couch is gonna be just as comfortable as this amazing bed.”

Steve sighed heavily. “Do what you want, Buck. But don’t come crying to me when she hunts you down and makes you check in.”

“Just who is this Natasha anyway?” Tony asked.

“I guess you could say she’s our vampire queen. Not like she has that many vampires to watch over. We’re a very small coven. It’s always only been Natasha, Bucky, and me.”

“I had no idea you had covens or even queens. That's kind of awesome.”

“I mean, our coven isn’t that impressive. We’re just set up in this fixer upper Natasha got for cheap. It’s not much to look at, but we’ve got plenty of privacy. You could come with us if you wanted.”

“Hell yes,” Tony said eagerly.

The lair was only two miles away from the Stark mansion so they all walked. Bucky grumbled the whole time about how cold it was until Tony wrapped an arm around him and pressed against his side.

As Steve had explained, the house really wasn’t much to look at. The paint was peeling on the outside and the windows were boarded over. It looked almost uninhabited. But that was probably by design. The vampires needed all the privacy they could get.

The house was pitch black inside and Tony gripped Steve’s hand for dear life as he made his way inside.

“Steven. You know better than to bring your human pet into our lair.” 

Tony froze. “Who’s there?”

“Oh, for god’s sake, do you always have to be so dramatic?” Bucky complained. 

Tony blinked and squinted against the sudden brightness. A slim redhead unfolded herself from the armchair in the corner. “Hello, boys. I see you’ve brought a friend.”

“So is the whole sitting in the dark thing part of the vampire mystique?”

She smiled. “They don’t call us children of the night for nothing.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “This is Tony. He’s my mate.”

Bucky stuck out his chin. “And mine as well.”

Tony felt a little rush of pride to hear Bucky publicly claim him as his mate.

“Why am I not surprised?” Natasha said with a shake of her head. “You two are always joined at the hip. I’m shocked you didn’t try to get into Steve’s poetry class.”

“Hell no,” Bucky scornfully. “Poetry is boring.”

“Yes,” Tony said delightedly. “A man after my own heart.” He gave Bucky a high five.

“I should have known you’d want to share a lover as well.”

“Hell no,” Bucky said. “He’s Stevie’s boyfriend.”

Natasha gave him a long, assessing look. “James.”

“Natasha,” Bucky spat.

She shrugged. “Well, at least Steven has the good sense to make good of what he has.”

“Are you talking about sex?” Tony looked at Steve for confirmation. “She’s talking about sex, right? Did you tell her sex is involved?”

“Really, boys,” Natasha said with a disappointed tone in her voice. “Neither of you are going to give your little human what he needs?

“It just seemed like a bad idea,” Steve said sheepishly.

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Uh, we could split him open on our dicks?” Bucky gestured to himself and Steve. “We’re both bigger than he is.”

“It’s a little early to be considering double penetration, yes,” Natasha said with a nod. “But you shouldn't be worrying about that. Didn’t you just say you wouldn’t be participating?”

Bucky scowled and crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’d say you all need to talk this out, but you’ve always been men of action. I’ll clear out for a couple hours so you have a little space. Please don’t keep being idiots about this. Have fun, boys,” she said with a little wave. She sashayed by them.

Tony watched the swing of her hips. If he didn’t have mates, he’d be hella tempted.

“So, she’s your vampire queen. She seems pretty down to earth for royalty.”

“It’s more of an honorary position. Since my own sire was more interested in creating new vampires than teaching us how to be vampires, I had to muddle along by myself for a few years until Natasha caught me feeding off a dead dog in an alley. She’s been my vampire mentor ever since. Everything I know, I owe it to her.”

“So how old is Natasha then?”

Steve shrugged.

“Fuck if know,” Bucky said.

“Seriously? You’ve been hanging around her for decades and you have no idea?”

“You never ask a lady her age.”

Tony snorted. “Natasha isn’t a lady.”

“Then you ask her next time you see her.”

“Hell no. She’d probably eat me alive.”

“Exactly.”

“She’s smart though. I’ll give her that. She has the right idea. We really ought to fuck it out. So, how ‘bout it?”

Steve swallowed and glanced over at Bucky. “Buck?”

Bucky flopped down on the couch and cocooned himself in the blankets.“I live here too. And I ain’t leaving just because you two want to fuck around.”

Tony waggled his eyebrows. “So you’re just going to sit here and watch then? Kinky.”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “I’ve seen plenty of dicks in my life. Yours won’t be anything special.”

“Oh please. Once you have a look at this ass, you’ll change your mind. You’ll wish you were in Steve’s place.”

Bucky let out a derisive snort and burrowed further under the blankets.

Tony made a show of shimmying out of his clothes. Bucky had the blankets draped over his head so Tony couldn’t really tell if he was watching or not, but he liked the idea of an audience. He imagined Bucky’s eyes following every movement.

Steve was as gentle and careful as Tony expected. He stole one of Bucky’s blankets and a cushion from the couch to put under Tony’s hips. He used a lot of lube and spent way too much time on the prep work.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough,” Tony said finally. He swatted at Steve’s hand. “If you want to fuck me sometime tonigt you better get on with it.”

Steve frowned, but moved his hands down to Tony’s hips and began to slowly press into his body.

Steve was big. Holy fuck. Tony bit his lip and squirmed a little to find a more comfortable position.

“Okay, we’re going to stop,” Steve said. “I’m hurting you.”

“No, you’re not. I’m fine. Totally fine.”

Steve hooked a pinky in the corner of Tony’s mouth. “Sweetheart, you’re bleeding.”

“It’s nothing,” Tony insisted. “It’ll just take me a minute to adjust.”

“You’re bleeding,” Steve repeated. He cupped his hands around Tony’s face and turned his head so he could see Bucky sitting rigidly on the arm of the couch, hands balled into fists, and eyes wide and red.

“Oh,” Tony said quietly. “Maybe we should call it a night.”


	9. Chapter 9

It was kind of endearing to see how badly Bucky felt about interrupting their sexy times and how much effort he was putting into making up for it. He showed up one day with a box of chocolates, the next with a bag of burgers from Tony’s favorite fast food restaurant, and then 

“You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were trying to show Steve up and prove that you’re better boyfriend material.”

“That’s not...I would never,” Bucky spluttered.

“Relax,” Tony said. “I’m not mad if you are. You’re hot too. And if I can be a mate to both of you, I can be a boyfriend to both of you. There’s more than enough of me to go around.”

Bucky blinked. “You’d be okay with that?”

“Of course I would. Why settle for one hot guy when you can have two?”

A shadow passed over Bucky’s face. “But we can’t have sex. You saw what happened. You’re lucky Stevie was fucking you and not me. I wouldn’t have been able to control myself in his spot.”

Tony patted Bucky’s shoulder. “Penetrative sex isn’t everything, babe. If you haven’t been introduced to the world of oral sex, I’m going to blow your mind.”

Bucky lit up. “I can’t wait to tell Steve.”

Out of the three of them, Steve was probably the most excited about Tony and Bucky dating. The two vampires really were crazy co-dependent. But it was nice to walk out after poetry class with Steve and have Bucky link arms with him instead of chasing him off.

And even though they didn’t need to eat, Tony enjoyed having lunch with them after class.

“You too?” Tony said with a laugh as he watched Bucky pour ketchup over his salad.

“Yes,” Bucky said with a heavy sigh. “I’m sure you understand why now.”

Tony even saw Natasha on campus from time to time. She had taken to hanging around the college to see if she could find her own mate. Considering the fact that Steve had only had three mates in two hundred years, Tony didn’t think her chances were very good. But since she was hot as hell, plenty of men would want to date her. Women too. She seemed to enjoy the attention but it looked like she had already found a boyfriend since Tony always seemed to see her with the same guy, proudly curled inside his purple jacket.

Life was going good. He had friends, steady boyfriends, all his classes were going well and even his father had stopped riding his ass so hard about school and Steve.

He should have known it was too good to be true.

The three of them were walking towards Tony’s car after their last class. It was taking a little longer than usual because Bucky kept wanting to press Tony up against all the buildings on their way to kiss him. Not that Tony was complaining.

Bucky pulled back abruptly. “We’re not alone,” he said. “Stevie, you smell that?”

“Get back!” Steve shouted. He pushed Tony and Bucky to the side.

An arrow thunked into the wall where they had just been standing.

Bucky touched a finger to the arrow and pulled it back with a hiss. “Silver and iron. It’s a vampire hunter.”

“Get behind me, Tony.” Steve ordered.

“No way. If this stuff kills you guys, I ought to be the human shield.”

“Bullshit,” Bucky said. “You get shot with one of these things, you’ll die too.”

“Who knows you guys are vampires besides my dad? He’s obviously the one who hired the hunter so he’s not going to shoot me.”

“We’re not taking that chance. Buck, you think you can pinpoint where our archer’s firing at us.”

Bucky nodded and scanned the nearby rooftops. “I think I got him.You two keep him distracted. I’ll go around and get the jump on him.”

“You’re really going to send him out there on his own?” Tony asked anxiously.

Steve squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. “Bucky was a sniper in the war. He’ll know exactly where this guy is aiming from and where his blind spots will be. Don’t worry about him. Just focus on us. We have to be the bait.”

Tony didn’t like the thought of Steve putting himself in danger either. He held his breath as Steve poked his head around the building, waiting just a few seconds before quickly pulling back. Another arrow embedded itself into the wall.

“That was too close for comfort,” Tony said. “Steve, you can’t keep doing this. You’re going to get shot.”

“Your turn,” Steve said with a mischievous grin.

Ah, fuck.

Playing tag with a vampire hunter wasn’t Tony’s idea of fun. Each time, the shot seemed to get closer and closer. He could feel the breeze as the arrow whistled by him.

“Buck’s got him,” Steve said at last. He slumped against the building in relief.

“How do you know that? Vampire telepathy?”

Steve shook his head. “I can smell the change in his blood. The fear, the anger. He’s not in control anymore.”

“You can smell people’s emotions? That’s super weird.”

“Only when they’re actively bleeding. It’s just a way for us to tell what kind of meal to expect. Blood tends to taste better when the person’s feeling good. So the blood of someone who donates to a blood drive with the hope of making a difference will probably taste much better than blood drawn from someone who is nervous and feeling ill.”

“Still weird,” Tony decided.

Steve rolled his eyes. “Humans do the same thing. You use your sense of smell to discern between ripe and rotten produce.”

“Humans? Wait, wait, wait. You can’t smell if something’s gone bad?”

“Not really. Human food doesn’t have much of a smell for us. It’s all very muted.”

“Holy shit. What if you’ve been eating rotten food this whole time?”

Steve shrugged. “Why would that matter? It won’t make us sick.”

“But people will notice! You can’t be seen eating rotten shit.” Tony shook his head. “It’s a good thing I came along to help you guys out.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say. Oh, I think I see Bucky over there. Wow, that archer was pretty accurate for such a distance.”

When Tony looked up, Bucky was waving to them from the top of the industrial arts building.

“So what happens now? Are you going to poof into a horde of bats and fly on up there?”

“No, I can’t turn into a horde of bats. Don’t be ridiculous.”

Tony huffed. “You vampires are a lot more boring than I thought. I thought there’d be a lot of cool powers involved, but all the movies have let me down.”

“You don’t need cool powers to get on top of a building. If our archer friend can get up there, so can we.” Steve circled the building until he found the ladder the archer had used to access the roof.

By the time they made it up to the rooftop, Bucky was standing over the archer. He had the man bound and gagged and was pinning him down with one foot. Where had Bucky even found rope?

“We’re going to have to get rid of him,” Bucky said. “He’s got orders from Howard Stark to hunt you down, Steve. And apparently I’m fair game too for associating with you.”

The man lifted his chin and glared at them defiantly.

There was something really familiar about him. Tony was pretty sure he’d seen that jacket before.

Oh shit.

“I don’t know, Buck,” Steve sighed. “I don’t want to have to kill anyone, but if we let him go, he’s not going to stop hunting us.”

“You got that right.” Bucky’s fangs extended. “I’ll take care of him.”

“Wait!” Tony said. “That’s Natasha’s boyfriend.”

“Are you sure?” Steve asked.

Tony nodded. “I see them making out behind the science building all the time.”

Steve set his jaw. “Okay, I’m calling Natasha. Keep a hold of him, Buck.”

The defiance in the man’s expression faded into something more uncertain.

“Oh, this'll be fun,” Bucky crooned. “Just wait until Nat takes care of you. You’ll wish you had let me kill you instead.”

Natasha arrived ten minutes later. She stalked across the rooftop, her heels clicking against the concrete. “Where’s Clint?” she demanded. “I’m going to kill him myself.”

Clint stared up at her with wide eyes.

“I can’t believe you,” she growled. “For once, I thought maybe I could have a human lover. But no, you were just leading me along to get closer to them.”

Clint shook his head vigorously.

“Oh, don’t even try to pretend it was real,” Natasha said scornfully. “No self-respecting vampire hunter would be caught dead dating a vampire.”

Clint shook his head again and gave her a pleading look.

Her glare softened a little. “You didn’t know?”

Clint bobbed his head and made a muffled sound beneath the gag.

Natasha sighed. “You’re either a terrible hunter or a great liar. I don’t know what to believe. But I’ll find out the truth one way or another.” She picked him up and threw him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. 

Tony whistled appreciatively. He thought his boyfriends were strong, but this was unbelievable.

“I’m taking this asshole someplace a little ways out of town. If you don’t hear from me in two hours, you know what to do.”

Steve nodded. “Stay safe.”

She smiled. “Don’t I always?”

Tony frowned. “What is she talking about?”

“We’ve been compromised, Tony. If she can’t get him to stand down, we’re going to have to go on the run again and start over somewhere else.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, you have to stay here.If your father finds out you’re with us, he’s never going to stop hunting us. And with his considerable resources, we’d be running for the rest of your life.”

“That’s not fair. The three of us have barely gotten together.”

“Life’s not fair, Tony. But we promise we’ll come back for you. It might take us a few years to get a new identity set up, but by then you’ll have graduated and moved out anyway. It’ll be okay. We just need to pack up the lair and be ready to go.”

Tony drove them back because it would be so much faster than walking and give them more time to pack. But he shouldn’t have worried. It took each of them less than ten minutes to shove things into a couple duffel bag and then they just sat on the couch, waiting anxiously for the time to run out.

The two of them got more and more tense as the minutes ticked by.

An hour and a half into Natasha’s timeframe, the door to the lair opened with a creak and Natasha stepped over the threshold, hand in hand with Clint.

“Natasha!” Bucky exclaimed. “Why the fuck would you bring a hunter here?”

“It’s alright,” she said. “He’s on our side now. He’s agreed to turn.”

“And you trust him? He could just be saying that to gain your confidence.”

Natasha tipped Clint’s head to one side and pulled down his collar. Right over Clint’s collarbone was an angry red bite mark.

“Oh,” Bucky said faintly.

“I’ve been doing this longer than you’ve been alive,” Natasha said. “So maybe next time you’ll keep your mouth shut and trust that I know what I’m doing.”

“Welcome to our coven,” Steve said. He shook Clint’s hand.

“I’m taking him upstate for a few days until he gets his instincts under control. Try and stay out of trouble until I get back.”


	10. Chapter 10

Things went back to something a little more normal after that. Or as normal as life could be while dating two vampires. Clint was a pretty awesome addition to the coven. He and Bucky had bonded over a love of sniping and hoodie wearing and he was a font of terrible jokes and puns that Steve seemed to love. Tony hadn’t quite unlocked his Tragic Backstory yet. Clint really didn’t want to talk about his past. But for him to change sides so quickly, vampire hunting had to have been a pretty terrible experience.

Tony wasn’t really keeping track of how quickly things had all come together, but apparently Bucky was.

“You know, tomorrow marks one whole month we’ve all been together. We should do something special to celebrate.”

“It’s only been a month? I feel like I’ve known you two my whole life.”

“Decades, at least,” Steve agreed.

“Is this a mates thing?”

Steve shrugged. “I have no idea. I didn’t get to spend much time with Peggy before she was killed and when I met Bucky, both of us were kids so we actually did know each other for several years before we were old enough for romance.”

“Like I was saying, something special,” Bucky continued. “And I figure what could be more special than experiencing what it’s like to be bitten by a vampire?”

“You two told me you can’t control yourselves around blood.”

Bucky waved him off. “I have a brilliant idea. Stevie and I are going to drink a lot of animal blood first.”

“Are you kidding me? This whole time, you all could have survived off animal blood?” All the fucking angst had no point.

“It’s not the same thing. It’s like if you were hungry and you drank a whole gallon of water to trick your stomach into believing you ate. It kind of helps, but it kind of doesn’t. If that makes any sense.”

“Sort of. It might curb your hunger a little bit, but it’s not going to really keep you going. You’re still going to bundle up like a penguin all the time.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Bucky growled. “I’m trying to do something nice.”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll stop making fun of your faulty thermostat.”

“You’d better. The way I figure, if I have the chance to feed a little, I won’t jump you if you want to try getting fucked again.”

“Yes,” Tony said gleefully.

“And since it’s our anniversary, I think Nat and Clint will be wiling to let us use the apartment for the night.”

Clint’s evil vampire hunter organization had put him up in a one-bedroom apartment just off campus. It was smaller, but a lot warmer than the lair and everyone took turns claiming it for the day when they needed private romantic time.

SInce Bucky was only attending classes to keep an eye on Steve and didn’ give a damn about his grades, he showed up to whisk Tony off to the apartment as soon as his classes let out just after noon.

While waiting for Steve to get back, the two of them spent a lot of time making out and trading blowjobs.

Steve didn’t make it until after two.

“I see you two started without me,” Steve said with a shake of his head.

“Oh please. Like you wouldn’t have done the same thing.” Bucky ran a hand up Tony’s thigh. “What do you think, baby? You want Steve to have a turn with you?”

Steve’s eyes darkened with lust.

Hell yes Tony wanted. But it would have to wait just a few minutes. He didn’t have much of a refractory time, but it was still a thing.

“I want to watch you and Bucky make out,” Tony demanded.

Steve raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, come on. If we’re all going to have a sex fest, you two need to have some chemistry.”

“We do,” Steve said patiently. “I wouldn’t have sex with someone I didn’t like.”

“Well, I still want to watch. When am I going to get another chance to see a vampire make out session?”

Steve quirked an eyebrow in Bucky’s direction. “Did you brush your fangs this morning?”

“No,” Bucky said. “I never brush in the morning.”

Steve shook his head. “It’s a good thing you came along, Tony. You see what I’ve been putting up for the past fifty years?”

“Oh, fuck you, Steve. You don’t always brush three times a day either.”

“But I’ve seen some of the things you eat. No telling what’s been in your mouth today.”

Tony shrugged. “He did just suck me off.”

“Oh,” Steve said. “Well, in that case.” He grabbed a handful of Bucky’s shirt and pulled him into a searing kiss.

Bucky whimpered brokenly and clutched at Steve’s shoulders.

“Damn, that’s hot,” Tony said. It was really such a pity he had just come because watching the two of them go at it would have really turned him on.

“You’re a genius, Tony,” Bucky slurred. “Why haven’t we done this before?”

“Are you fucking kidding me? You two have never kissed before?”

“Course we have.. But it’s the first time we’ve had someone watching.” Bucky licked his lips. “I think I should get to watch you and Steve make out next.”

“I think you should watch Steve bite me instead. Not that this hasn’t all been sexy as hell, but you said blood drinking was even better than sex.”

“If you insist,” Bucky said. His fangs dropped down. “You do the honors, Stevie. He was your mate first.”

Steve placed a steadying hand on Tony’s shoulder. “It’ll hurt a bit at first,” he warned. “But the enzymes in our saliva should take care of that pretty quickly and you’ll just feel really good.”

“Do it. I’m ready.” He closed his eyes and braced himself.

There was an initial sharp pain and then a zing of pleasure shot up his spine. “Oh fuck,” he moaned brokenly. “That does feel good.”

“My turn,” Bucky said eagerly.

It didn’t hurt as much the second time. Tony watched as Bucky sank his fangs into his shoulder, surprised how little pain he felt from those needle-sharp teeth.

He could feel them draining his blood, a vague pulling sensation under his skin. It didn’t hurt either. He just felt warm and hazy.

Steve seemed content to drink from the right side of Tony’s neck while Bucky moved all across his body, nipping here and there and only taking what felt like a sip at a time.

Steve raised an eyebrow. “How many times are you going to bite him?”

“As many times as I want to,” Bucky said indignantly. “You want to be marked the hell up, don’t you, Tony?”

“You can do whatever you want to me,” Tony murmured. If it felt half as good as what his lovers had already done to him, he was going to be a very happy man.

“Bucky,” Steve said sternly

“What? He said I could.”

“You’re going to drain him dry. And we love Tony more than we love how good he tastes, right?”

“Of course. But it’s a very close contest. Goddamn. Tony, you have no idea how good you taste.”

“That’s because he’s healthy, happy and in love with us,” Steve said, affectionately stroking Tony’s cheek. “No pain, no fear. It’s rare to find blood this pure.”

Tony melted into Steve’s touch. Nobody had ever referred to him as pure, not even as a child. It was rare praise that made him feel like he could do no wrong.

Steve gently tilted Tony’s head to the side and fastened his mouth back against his first bite mark. Tony’s eyes fluttered shut as the hazy warmth spread through his body.

“Oh, Tony,” Steve murmured. “I wish you could experience what this is like for us. It’s magical.”

“Feels pretty magical on my end, too,” he said. He could almost fall asleep like this, lulled by the pleasurable warmth spreading through him.

“Tony,” Steve said firmly.

Tony forced his eyes open. “What?”

“You’re losing consciousness,” Steve said regretfully. “Which means we need to stop here.”

“Aw,” Tony said.

Steve swiped his tongue over Tony’s neck.

Tony shuddered. “I thought you were stopping?”

“This’ll close the wound,” Steve said. “Encourage the blood to clot.” He gave Bucky a stern look. “You’re going to have to lick every single bite you made so he doesn’t lose too much blood.”

“Oh, what a tragedy,” Bucky said sarcastically. “Forced to lick all the way across my boyfriend’s glorious abs.”

“You’re cleaning up all of this too, right?” Tony gestured to the little rivulet of blood coursing its way down to his belly button.

“I probably should have closed up the first bites before I made more,” Bucky admitted. “A lot less mess.”

“It’s a waste of blood,” Steve said. “You shouldn’t drink all of that right now.”

“Probably not. But it would be a shame to waste it. Oh, I think I still have one of my test tubes from my chemistry class this morning.” Bucky pressed the vial against Tony’s belly and collected the last of the dripping blood before licking the wound closed.

Tony yawned, suddenly unbelievably tired. He hadn’t gotten fucked and there was no way he had the energy for it now.. But he felt far too amazing to really care about the oversight.

“You don’t have anything important to do tomorrow, do you?” Bucky asked.

Tony shook his head. Nothing he could think of at the moment.

“Good. You should probably stay here and sleep it off.” Bucky grinned crookedly. “I think we wore you out.”

“Bucky’s right,” Steve said. “You’ll need extra rest to recover.” He pressed a kiss to Tony’s forehead. “I’ll take notes for you in Pierce’s class.”


	11. Chapter 11

Tony rolled out of bed with a groan and silenced his alarm.

He rubbed a hand over his neck, expecting to feel the bite marks. But he didn’t. Frowning, he dragged himself into the bathroom to have a look in the mirror. Disappointingly, his skin was perfectly smooth. So it had all been a dream. But if these were the kinds of wet dreams he was going to have now that he was dating the two vampires, he wasn’t going to complain too much.

But damn, it had been a realistic dream. His body felt like it had really been wrung through all those orgasms. He felt exhausted, a bone-deep weariness like every drop of energy had been sucked out of him. But maybe he was just coming down with the flu.

And unfortunately, he had a full day of classes ahead of him. Ugh, this was gonna suck.

Tony made it to school just a few minutes before Pierce’s class was supposed to start, clutching the biggest, strongest cup of coffee the campus’ coffee shop made.

Bucky and Steve met him with twin expressions of surprise.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Bucky asked. “You look like shit.”

“Gee, thanks, Buck,” Tony said, trying to summon up a smile.

“No, really,” Steve said. “You look awful. You shouldn’t even try going to classes today.”

“I have to. Starks don’t skip school. Dad would be pissed if he saw me laying in bed all day.”

“Your dad’s a fucking moron,” Bucky growled. “Come on. Let’s see if your buddy will let you crash at his place.”

Tony stumbled as Bucky steered him towards the door. He rubbed at his eyes. “Goddamn. I’ve never been this sick before.”

Steve exchanged a worried look with Bucky. “Never?” he asked.

“I feel hot and gross so I’m sure I have a fever. I’m fucking exhausted and I’m achy and itchy all over. Even my teeth hurt.”

“This sounds more serious than I thought. Where’d you park? We’re getting you help.”

Tony fished his keys out of his pocket and vaguely gestured towards the south parking lot. He was starting to feel pretty dizzy and standing upright was taking too much of an effort.

Bucky scooped him into his arms. “I got you, doll. We’ll get you taken care of.”

Tony had never let anybody else drive his car. In fact, his father had specifically forbidden him to let friends drive it. But he was in no condition to handle the car at the moment and he trusted Steve knew what he was doing. Steve had to have gotten a driver’s license sometime in his hundred plus years of existence, right?

The two of them laid him down carefully in the back seat Steve took off down the highway at what felt like a faster speed than even Tony liked to drive.

“So what are we going to do for him?” Bucky asked. “You got any idea?”

“I’ve got a plan,” Steve confirmed.

“Don’t take me to the hospital,” Tony said weakly.

“I think it’s a little too late for that,” Steve said grimly.

“I’m going to die, aren’t I?”

Steve didn’t respond, but his hands tightened over the steering wheel.

The car pulled up outside the vampires’ lair. Steve lifted him out of the car and carried him inside.

“Natasha!” Steve shouted. “We need your help.”

The house was silent.

Bucky shoved past him and quickly moved through the rest of the rooms. “She’s not here. She must be out with Clint.”

Steve’s shoulders slumped. “Of course she is.”

“I’ll text her and let her know to get her ass back here immediately.”

Steve shook his head. “By the time she gets here, it’ll be too late. There’s probably nothing she can do anyway. Let’s just lay him down and get him comfortable.”

They settled Tony down on the couch right outside the kitchen. Tony wiggled and kicked some of the giant pile of blankets on to the floor. “It’s too hot in here,” he complained.

Even without the blankets, he still felt like he was burning up. He tugged off his jacket and ripped off his shirt. And oh damn, there were bite marks all over his chest.

Tony touched a finger to the bite on his shoulder. He really should have seen it when he looked in the mirror that morning. So weird.

Bucky’s face went white. “I didn’t realize I took that much. Fuck, this is all my fault.”

“It’s both our faults,” Steve said firmly. “We know how hungry we get when we haven’t fed in a few years. The two of us should have never tried to share Tony. It was always going to be too much.”

“Not your faults I’m so irresistible,” Tony said. “If my blood was as tasty as you said, I’m not surprised you drank so much. Oh, hey, you should take some more of my blood while you still have the chance. After all, it’s a limited time deal now.”

“Tony, we shouldn’t. You’re already so weak.”

“I’m dying anyway. No sense in delaying the inevitable.”

“He has a point,” Bucky said. His eyes flicked to Steve.

Steve nodded.

Bucky’s fangs extended and he bit into the meat of Tony’s shoulder.

Tony grimaced. It hurt a lot worse than it had earlier. Maybe he was too far gone for the vampire pain relief magic to work now.

The little vial of blood filled slowly and Tony watched with detached interest. He could almost feel himself getting weaker drop by drop. He never thought he’d be able to actually feel himself dying, but here he was.

“Please don’t be upset how this all turned out,” Tony said. “I love you both and I don’t regret a single second.”

His heart rate slowed, his breathing became shallow and labored.

Everything went black.

And then everything went red.

He could hear voices, people yelling and shouting. He struck, sinking his fangs into the first bit of warm flesh he could find.

“Ow! Fuck that hurts,” said a strangely familiar voice.

He drew back, snarling. There was something wrong with the blood. It didn’t taste right. It tasted...stale.

“Move, Buck. It’s my turn.”

An arm was shoved in front of his face and he bit down eagerly.

Bleurgh. That tasted even worse.

Tony sputtered and spat out his mouthful of blood. “What the hell? This tastes like shit.”

“There you are.” Steve smiled and cupped gentle hands around Tony’s face. “Glad to have you back with us.”

“I bit you,” Tony said in surprise, watching a little blood drip down Steve’s wrist. “Both of you.”

“You were supposed to. New vamps that don’t feed from their sire often go feral. Vampire blood doesn’t taste nearly as good as human blood so it snaps you out of that mindless bloodlust pretty quickly.”

Tony blinked. “Oh. That’s...that sure is a thing.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m glad to know blood doesn’t always taste like this. Imagine surviving an eternity off this stuff.”

“Here, let’s get that taste out of your mouth,” Steve said. He reached for the vial of blood Bucky had drawn the day before.

“No, no, no,” Bucky said. “Don’t start him off with the really good stuff. Everything after that is only going to be a disappointment.”

Steve frowned. “It’s his blood. He deserves to know what it tastes like.”

“Later. Maybe for his birthday or anniversary. We have to prepare him for his new reality.” Bucky took the vial that had been drawn just a few minutes before and held it out to Tony. “It’s not going to always taste just like this, but this is probably closer to what you’ll get from a normal person.”

Tony took a careful sip. He expected the normal coppery tang that he always tasted when his mouth was bleeding. But it was surprisingly sweet, with this smoky, almost acrid finish.

“Not bad,” Tony said. “Weird aftertaste though.”

Bucky took a tiny sip and nodded. “That would be the fear. I don’t know why some of our brethren still insist on violent attacks when it ruins the blood.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “There wouldn’t be the taste of fear if you assholes had told me what was really happening. I thought I was actually dying.”

“You did die, technically,” Bucky said. “Your heart stopped and everything. But then you were reborn as one of us.”

“And I’m so sorry we did this to you,” Steve said in a stricken tone.

“Why are you sorry? We all knew this was going to happen eventually.”

“But not until you’ve had a chance to live a full human life.” Steve cupped his hands around Tony’s face. “You’re still so young. You haven’t even made it to twenty-one yet.”

Tony snorted. “You think my age ever stopped me from drinking at frat parties? Wait, I’m not going to be able to taste the alcohol anymore, right? So vampires can’t get drunk?”

“If you drink from a drunk person, yeah.”

“Then what the hell are you worried about? I won’t be missing out on anything.”

“You didn’t get a chance to become a fully fledged adult.”

“And twenty-one is somehow the magic number for adulthood?”

“Well, no, but-”

“You can’t guarantee I’ll live to be however old you think I should be. This is better. Trust me. We’ve got my immortality locked down already and oh. hey we can have sex now,” Tony said brightly.

Steve sighed. “Is that the only thing you can think about?”

“Of course not. There are so many other perks. I don’t have to let sleep stop me, I can eat whatever the hell I want and not worry about calories or vitamins or if I’m really busy, I don’t have to eat at all. Do you know how much time this frees up? This is awesome.”

Bucky shook his head. “You really are so young. Being a vampire isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Trust me. We have to move every few years before people get suspicious of youthful good looks. And we gotta stay one step ahead of any vampire hunters out there.”

“It’s going to be a very lonely eternity,” Steve said. “You’ll survive even after everyone you ever cared about is long dead. Your neighbors, your classmates, your parents, your friends.”

Tony expected to outlive his parents. That was usually the way of things. But Rhodey...yeah, having to watch him grow old and die was going to suck.

He swallowed. “We’ll deal with all that when the time comes. But for now, I’m happy to be able to share the same life as my boyfriends.”

And that would have to be enough.

THE END


End file.
